Well that was 50k well spent!

In case you don't know, the British DNA database is the biggest DNA database in the world. It contains records of over four million people, one quarter of whom were never convicted of anything. It also contains the records of 500,000 children. The database is owned and maintained by the police. Since 2004 the police have been legally able to take a DNA sample from anyone they arrest, and the record stays in the database forever, even if the the arrested person subsequently turns out to be innocent. Anyone who volunteers to give the police a DNA sample is also recorded in the database and the record is never erased. There is a reason for telling you this, stick with me.

Today we hear that the government commissioned a "citizens inquiry" on the British DNA database back in January at a cost of £50,000 to the tax payer. The report was published today. It concluded that one million records of innocent people should be removed from the database, and that criminals who have served their time should also have their records removed.

The report also recommended that the database should be managed by an independent body, not the police or Home Office, and that police should be banned from taking samples from people who have committed minor offences. The panel are also quoted as saying, "past actions and hidden agendas have shown that the government can't be trusted." One individual panel member was quoted as saying, "For me, that is the first step towards a totalitarian state if we start recording these things now". (Quotes again from Metro Newspaper 30 July 07).

So, pretty strong message from the citizens inquiry commissioned by the PM to gauge the views of ordinary people. How has the Home Office responded? I'll tell you. According to the Metro, the initial response from the Home Office was, "They won't change our position". According to the Telegraph they later added that they welcomed "constructive and open discussion" on the database. So that was £50,000 well spent then.

Find the full report here.

The Labour party continues to lurch from one crisis to the next. This week started with confusion about who was running the country while the PM took a holiday. Clearly Harriet Harman thought she was driving yesterday, though it seems that Gordon wasn't comfortable with a woman driver and felt the need to tell everyone he was still in control while away. Today we see Dave Miliband the foreign secretary apparently setting himself up as a potential challenger for the top job, and then claiming he wasn't doing anything of the sort.

My theory on the Gordon Brown issue is this; if he stays on as PM (and I think he will) they'll be an election in 12-18 months, and the labour party will lose badly to the Tories, might even come third. If he gets pushed out they'll have to be an election much sooner, and the labour party will lose, but maybe not quite as badly. They will still look like a party in utter disarray and people won't vote for them. It's a difficult call for the labour party because either way could be perceived as the path of least destruction.

The leader will be sacked at the next election if they lose, whether it be Gordon or someone else. If Dave Miliband, Harriet Harman, or Jack Straw take over as PM before the next election, then lose and get sacked, they won't be in a position to stand as leader in the following election. That's why Jack and Harriet have given their support to Gordon.

Too much politics. I hate politics. I don't know why I do it to myself.

Harriet's in Charge - Don't Panic!

My eyes are open, but I am not awake. The little monkey must have woken me up about 200 times last night. We just let him cry alone in the end. It's very difficult to do that, but sometimes, it really is the best option. He was super difficult this morning. I thought it was going to be a bad day, but I've phoned in, and he doesn't appear to have been too awful.

The stupid bus didn't turn up again this morning. That's two days in a row. I think it was broken down. I had to wait for the next one. There are usually two buses going backwards and forwards between the industrial estate where I work, and the station. Today there was one. I saw the other one sitting in the car park outside my office. It's gone now. Hope it's fixed.

Headline on the BBC website this morning, "Harman minding the shop while Mr Brown's away". Well that fills me with confidence that does. Actually, the Telegraph puts a rather different spin on the story. They claiming that Harriet is not the only senior MP who thinks they are in charge as the PM is on holiday.

Poor Gordon Brown is in all sorts of trouble. Even the Matt cartoon in the Telegraph ridicules him. Rumours are rife about Labour MPs plotting to unseat him and take over. A friend of the PM has been quoted as saying, "Any of the pretenders has to know that if they are proposing to become Labour's third leader and prime minister in 18 months, they would come under intense pressure to have an election, and as things stand, that means losing." That quote comes from the Telegraph again, though the source is not named. It's quite possible of course that no one ever said it, but it's worth considering anyway. If there was a leadership challenge, and Gordon did lose, there would be calls for an election. And they couldn't possibly win.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and true blue Tory, has speculated in a typically muddled article, that Gordon remaining in power would be good for the Tories because they can beat him at the next general election. If there was a leadership change, he still thinks the Tories will win the next election, but there is a question mark over the next one. I don't quite follow his logic. It has something to do with cheese.

I see that the foreign office has managed to lose 3,000 blank passports today. That was careless wasn't it. It seems the blank passports and visas were in a security van on their way to London. The driver stopped to buy a newspaper, and the thieves took advantage of the situation. As far as I can tell, the driver and his mate were assaulted, though not seriously, by unarmed men. The passport office has said that the stolen passports are worth nothing on the black market because they have biometric chips and therefore can't be used. The serious fraud office says they are worth £2.5 million because, although they can't be used for travel except in countries that don't have chip reading technology, they can be used as id to open bank accounts etc.

See, this is yet another example of the government not realising the importance of data security, and mistakenly thinking that a biometric chip is the ultimate security measure. They also appear blissfully unaware of how identity theft works.

14,975 sunrises

I've been 41 times around the sun. That would be a distance of 23,957,785,576 miles (call it 24 billion). The earth has revolved on it's own axis 14,975 times. The moon has orbited the earth 507 times (that doesn't seem enough does it). In that time there have been seven different British Prime ministers, four popes, six successful manned moon landings, and the global population has risen by slightly over 3 billion.

I have witnessed the invention of the hand-held calculator, the microprocessor, the mobile phone, the first video game, the ATM, the walkman, the IBM PC, MS Dos and Windows, and apparently the food processor. I can't believe I pre-date food processors by four years. And the odd thing is, I don't feel as old now, as I did the day after my 40th birthday.

We did the garden barbecue thing yesterday lunch time. It was good. We bought two of those disposable type barbecues. You just light the blue touch paper and stand back until the flames die down. I didn't really expect it to work so well, but they got hot very quickly and lasted for hours. We cooked chicken wings, prawns, vegetable things. It was most delicious.

The boy enjoyed himself as much as he could over the weekend. He is now covered in the pox, but he was pleased to see his grandma. He's walking around on tiptoe because he has spots on the bottom of his feet. He's not too downhearted though. And he still has an appetite, which can only be a good thing.

Almost Red

21 July

We almost have red tomatoes on our tomato plants. I'm more excited than a man of my years should be. I built a sort of patio thing yesterday for our garden pots to sit on. We've had a pile of red bricks that could have been described as a barbeque, sitting in the corner of the garden for years. So I dismantled it and arranged the recovered bricks to form said patio. I rather like it. It looks a bit rough and rustic.



I got a call yesterday from the guy I hired to do the tiling in our kitchen. I asked him about a month ago if he could cap one of our chimneys because water appeared to be dripping down it and making a damp patch. He said he'd do it, but I thought he'd either forgotten, or didn't really want the work because it didn't get done. However, he called me yesterday and told me he actually did it last week. Sure enough, there is a cap on the chimney. God knows when he did it. I owe the guy £60 anyway. He's coming round tonight. I'm going to ask him how much he would charge for laying a new floor in the bathroom and installing a new tub.

The boy still doesn't appear to have chicken pox, despite being exposed to it several times. It may not be such a surprise though, sine the incubation period can be as long as three weeks. There are a couple of slightly suspicious marks on his back, but they haven't erupted into anything that could be described as a chicken pock. I've gone from hoping he doesn't get it to wishing it would happen soon.

22 July

The boy woke up and threw up over me, so I worked from home in case it was the onset of the pox. It wasn't, or at least, there are no spots yet. He was irritable and grumpy and I keep thinking he has a fever, more news as we get it.

23 July

It's warm and humid. We ate our first home-grown tomato last night. It wasn't planned. The boy saw it was red, picked it, and took a bite. We shared it.

I will be 41 years old on Friday. We are going out to celebrate. Well, I don't class it as a celebration really. I try and forget birthdays. We are going out for a meal though. It clashes with my office summer do, which takes the form of a cover band in a pub. I've politely declined. I really don't like work outings. I feel guilty though. I turned down the last two. Sooner or later I will have to attend one I imagine. There was a curry night that I intended to go on. I accepted the invite and then the date changed, and changed again, and again. In the end it was cancelled. Typical, the one event I thought I might like gets cancelled.

The boy is appearing in the local paper tonight in the best baby in the world competition. I'll keep you posted about that.

Stop Press...

I just had a call from the dragon (I'm at work, she's at home) and she's found a chicken pock on the boy's head. The little soldier has it at last. He's been a grumpy little git for the last few days. I was sure he had it yesterday.

I have a headache. It's very humid here today.

FFF Friday!

I wrote one line yesterday, and then gave up. I can't remember what it was about It can't have been very important.

So, it's Friday again. The weekend officially starts in about three hours. I think the generally accepted point at which the weekend commences is 5pm on Friday. That's the point at which one can leave work and head for the pub, if one doesn't have a wife and child of course.

I have another list of things that require my attention this weekend, mostly to do with fixing up the bathroom. I want to replace the bath, which is frankly foul, but the Dragon says it's not worth it since it still works perfectly well. She is right, but I still want to do it.

My brother has apparently given up smoking. I don't think he reads this page, so there is no point in congratulating him. That said, I quite often write messages to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary here. I have serious doubts as to whether they have ever been anywhere near this page either. Anyway, I hope the little monkey manages to kick the habit this time. He really should have grown out of such things at his age.

Friend Dave is intending to migrate to Canada next month. His house is sold, subject to contract, and a little BBQ type party thing was to be held at his gaff on 9th Aug. However, Dave won't let us go there in case we mess the place up. I don't know what the problem is if it's already sold.

I've made a bet with friend Dickie that he can't tell the difference between free-range, organic eggs, and cheap battery farmed supermarket eggs by taste alone, when scrambled. He changed the damn rules actually. It was originally going to be boiled eggs, and it was to be a £200 wager. Now it's scrambled and a gentleman's wager - poof! I'm interested in this actually. I'll bring you more news as it becomes available. It was to be held at Dave's gaff on the day of the BBQ, but since it isn't happening now, I don't know how we will do it. I'm going to pursue this though.

The boy has now spent two afternoons with his best buddy who has chicken pox, but has not yet shown any signs of the condition himself. I realise that people with the pox are infectious for only a maximum of 5 days after the spots appear, but he would have been inside that time-scale and I think he was playing with him about 3 days before the spots appeared. I want him to get it so it won't happen again.

Cress

I just installed Office 2007. It looks pretty. Does it work? Only time will tell. I'll keep you posted.

I have notes to answer. Abbey, in the video, Mummy is saying something like, "How do we poo?" and the boy is saying, "Errrr, eerrrrrr, ba dung!" It's not really that complex. In answer to Mr Cat6's question, yes, he is being raised bilingual. Mummy is actually a very accomplished linguist. English is her fourth, yes fourth, language. All Taiwanese grow up speaking Chinese and Taiwanese to some level, she also speaks Hakkanese with her family. She always speaks Chinese to the boy, and I always speak English. She's hoping she can teach him Hakkanese too. Hakkanese is a dying language, spoken only by an Asian subculture. Not many people speak it now. He has a couple of words, he really needs to spend some time with his maternal grandfather to get that sorted out.

The PM has announced today that a 2p rise in fuel duty is to be postponed due to soaring oil prices. It has nothing to do with next week's by election of course.

More importantly, the Information Commissioner has said that Home Office plans to implement a database holding details of all telephone calls, emails, and browsing habits across the country are, "a step too far". The Home Office has been defending the plan of course. I hadn't realised it, but this particular assault on our liberty is yet another piece of flying shrapnel from Europe. Abandon Ship!

The government thinks the problem of knife crime in England can be solved by banning knives with pointed ends. Who voted for these pilocks?

I ate egg and cress sandwiches for lunch. We grew the cress ourselves, look"

I completely hate Anne Snelgrove

So the weekend stayed nice then. We drove down to Devon. The car is driving much better since the service, and I think we used less fuel too. So that's a good thing. There was loads of traffic. I completely hate caravans. I cut most of mother's grass while I was down there. That's like an acre. It felt like I achieved something.

The boy decided to be difficult all weekend. I don't know what the problem was, but his best friend Johnny appears to have got chickenpox, so it is possible he has it too. I had it as a child, and the dragon managed to catch it a couple of years ago from the kids at the school where she was teaching. If he hasn't got it, the plan is to let him spend a day or two with Johnny and get it out of the way now. Though, we are sort of thinking about expanding the family, so that would mean having one immune child, and one not.

Openly gay US Anglican Bishop Gene Robinson has been speaking in London and was heckled by a large and scruffy looking gentleman from the congregation who advised him, in forceful and vociferous tones, to "Repent Sir". Terribly polite I thought. He (the scruffy gentleman) was removed during a hymn, and he left on a motorbike apparently. I mention this because I thought the headline should be, "Bishop heckled for being a Queen".

Most of my colleagues have gone off on an outing today to Oxford. It's 4.30 and the team has vanished, apart from me and a couple of other social lepers. I hate office outings. Apart from anything else, they always end up in Oxford and it's a pain in the arse getting back to Swindon. Most people live in or near Oxford, so getting home isn't an issue for them. So I just told them I'd rather not go. I actually feel guilty about it. I shouldn't really should I. I have a family. I'm not contracted to work evenings, and it's unpaid. I'd rather be with them than my work colleagues.

15 July

IT was Bastille day in France yesterday, so I hope everyone there had a jolly good time. It seems to me that just about every country in the world has a special National Day except Britain. We should have a Battle of Hastings Day or Fire of London Day or something.

It seems my home town has decided to take on the government and attempt to disable speed cameras in the town. This is actually quite amazing. The local council has said that it is not prepared to provide £400,000 a year to upkeep roadside cameras which catch drivers speeding, because the money raised from fines goes straight back to the government. I know the councillor behind this action. His name is Peter Greenhalgh. We worked together for years. Our kids play together.
Yesterday the local paper published a piece about how awful it was that the local council was sacrificing road safety for the sake of money. They reported that our local MP Anne Snelgrove, oh how I loath that woman, was up in arms about the fact that speed cameras were lying dormant. Today the paper is running a poll that would seem to indicate that 75% of readers are in favour of scrapping the cameras.

The government loves speed cameras because they see them as a free way to catch people doing something illegal. It's another example of how the government and the public think differently. The public would rather 10 rapists or murderers were caught each year, than 1,000 speeding motorists. The government on the other hand thinks the public will vote for them if they can say they caught 1,000 speeding motorists without raising taxes, as long as they don't mention the rapists and murderers that got away with it. But the people aren't stupid. They know full well that, although speed cameras pay for themselves, police are still tied up with speed camera administration when they could be out catching scum bags.

This sort of row pleases me no end anyway. Not only is the public finally getting a voice, Anne Snelgrove, nasty, toady, bandwagon jumping, Iraq war supporting cow, is getting negative publicity too. The scheming old witch will struggle to keep her deposit at the next election if she carries on like this. Oh Happy Happy Day. She had only a small majority last time. Go and have a look at her stats page. The vile woman supported just about every assault on human liberty that's been through parliament in the last 10 years.

Things the evil bag voted for:
Iraq war
ID cards
42 detention without charge
Biometric registration of immigrants

And things the old sow voted against:
Transparent Parliament
Investigation into the Iraq war
Implemtenting independent recommendations over MPs expenses.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

10 July

Good things that happened today:

Someone at work brought cakes in to celebrate a birthday. It's not raining. Ann Robinson has been banned from driving for six months after her fourth speeding offence in less than three years.

Bad things that happened today:

Bloody car failed MOT test and needs new exhaust pipe. £345, plus the cost of the test and service. Not much change from £500 - Pah!

Bob Geldof wrote a rousing piece in the telegraph this morning. I don't very often agree with Sir Bob, but I read this piece and it seemed strangely familiar to me. Then I realised, it's the same speech I do when I'm drunk.

11 July

David Davies won the Haltemprice and Howden by election. It was no surprise, since the other two major parties decided not to contest the seat. He did however win in some style. There were 26 candidates, 23 of which lost their deposit. Davies took nearly three quarters of the total votes, and won with a 15,000 majority. He gained over 17,000 votes. He actually polled more than 22,000 votes in the last election there, and won with a majority of more than 5,000. But turnout was over 70% that day. Turnout yesterday was 34%. What's the point of voting if you know the winner anyway?

Davies took the opportunity have a dig at the PM, saying that they should have entered a candidate even if they knew the result was a foregone conclusion, so that a debate could have been staged. He used some pretty strong langauge to attack Labour's 42-day detention plan, and the Telegraph took the opportunity to do the same. I think he's actually proved a point here. It would have been great to see a high turnout, which would have sent a very clear message, but it was never going to happen.

OK, that's the boring bit over. Here is a video of the boy demonstrating how to poo. I must stress that this is only a demonstration. No animals or children were harmed during the making of this film.

Stuff I Found in the News Today

Two examples in the news today of how the government is just too powerful:

First, a man was held at gunpoint by police on Bournemouth station and came perilously close to losing his life. An undercover policeman aboard a train identified a man waving an imitation gun around and informed police at the station. Station police of course got it wrong, and stuck their guns up the nose of the wrong bloke, took him to a toilet cubicle, searched him, and took him back to a police station before admitting they had the wrong guy. They have since apologised. well that's OK then. It obviously doesn't matter that another innocent man was almost executed and the real criminal is still at large.

Second, and I really like this story, though I feel desperately sorry for the victim; a women has discovered that the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) holds false information about her and has found herself having to prove that she hasn't done things they claim she has. Amanda Hodgeson, a completely innocent and law abiding subject, applied for a CRB check so that she could work at her local primary school. She expected the check to show that she had never been in trouble with the police, but the police central computer spat out a four page report claiming she had convictions for assault, battery, and abusive and offensive behaviour amongst other things. It went on to claim that she was an alcoholic and a heroin addict at one time, and that she now receives psychiatric treatment and methadone.

The information is demonstrably false since it stretches back 18 years, well before she was married and began using her current name. However, the CRB has told her, wait for it, the only way she can clear her name is to provide her fingerprints which must then be checked against every unsolved crime on record. That's right ladies and gentlemen, in a country that is so fond of claiming that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, Ms Hodgeson is apparently guilty until proven innocent.

So, to the gang of people out there still claiming that people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, read the last three paragraphs again, slowly, and then ask yourself if id cards are a good idea.

The government sentencing advisers have suggested that people sentenced to less than 12 months in prison should be given community service orders instead. So, in other words, the government has told itself that they should send less people to prison. This of course has nothing to do with the fact that they have run out of prison places and don't want to create more. It's entirely because people released from prison after short jail terms are likely to re offend, unlike those people who are given community service orders, who presumably never re offend.

Fathers for Justice are protesting on the roof of deputy Labour leader, Harriet Harman's house. You have to hand it to the Fathers for Justice, they are brilliant at protesting. They always grab the headlines. Sadly no one knows what the hell they are protesting about exactly, but who cares, they're dressed as batman on Harriet Harman's roof!

Lord Dixon Smith has apologised for saying "Nigger" in the House of Lords. Shame on you sir!

And my current favourite story has been kicking around since yesterday. It concerns a 19-year-old hotel receptionist that discovered a bat curled up in her bra. The young lady wears a 34FF bra and I was holding off mentioning this simply because I wanted to see what headline the Sun would come up with when they ran the story. Disappointingly they ran with, "Bra is sending me Batty", so I made up my own:

Fruit Bat found between Melons

Holy Underwear Batman

and my favourite:

Homeless Bat Moves in with Great Tits

Today Dragged

Gordon Brown says we should not be wasting so much food. The Telegraph points out that the Common Agricultural policy wastes literally mountains of food every year, and if the PM was really worried about wasting food and keeping prices down, he should consider withdrawing. Europe really is the root of all things evil in this country.

Any PM giving the public advice on home economics seems somehow hilarious, but Gordon Brown, what was he thinking? When was the last time he nipped out to sainsbury for a carton of milk? Looks like another bad PR move to me. There is also much talk about Gordon's future in the papers now as the Glasgow East by-election draws close. Glasgow East is a particularly under privileged constituency. Unemployment is high, morale is low. It's been a Labour secure seat for decades, but who knows what might happen at a by election now that Labour is about as popular as a dose of clap. The Conservatives can't possibly win Glasgow East, but the SNP could. And if they do, the knives will be out for Gordon.

I spent all morning in a meeting at work. It should have lasted an hour, but went on for two. It was excruciating. I'm sometimes almost overcome with the urge to get up and stab certain people to death with my biro.

I think I have to mention Max Mosley, the FIA chief. In case you have been living on Mars, Max was secretly filmed partaking in a very kinky sex session in a basement in Chelsea. It seems that Max had paid 5 women £500 each for their time. The video appeared on the News of the World website and clearly showed a sado masochistic event in which the ladies dressed in black jackets, black boots, and black caps. Max and one of the other women apparently conversed in German. The Telegraph also reports that there was head lice checking and shaving involved. It doesn't explain what was shaved sadly. The News of the World described the event as a, "sick Nazi orgy with five hookers".

Max was understandably upset that the News of the World decided to expose him in this way. In retaliation he has taken the newspaper to court claiming that they invaded his privacy. Now I find it slightly strange that someone worried about privacy makes the decision to launch a very public law suit about the affair, but I can sort of understand it. The guy is angry with the press, so he tries to sue them.

So here's what I can't understand; Max seems to be particularly riled that the News of the World described the event as a "sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers". In his defence, Max is the son of Oswald Mosley, fascist political nutter from the 30s. Even so, so riled is Max at the phrase used in the press that it appears to have clouded his judgement and he is now saying the most ridiculous things. Apparently the 5 women he paid for sex were not prostitutes - OK. And there was "not a hint" of Nazi behaviour in the video - the one with the girls wearing black boots and shouting in German.

I'm not normally one to defend the British gutter press, and believe me the News of the World is about as gutter as it gets, but they have a point here don't they?

Oh here is the footage anyway. It's not safe for work, obviously.

Criminal Justice

So, another independence day is over. Another Wimbledon champion has been crowned after an epic final apparently, I didn't watch it. Lewis Hamilton stormed home first in the British GP. I didn't watch that either, but I wish I had. I bought two new pairs of work trousers at BHS, and it's been peeing down with rain intermittently all weekend. As I type this I can hear colleagues deconstructing the sporting events of the weekend in the kitchen. I've never been able to discuss sport like that. I don't understand how people who essentially drive a desk for a living, can state opinions about Lewis Hamilton's performance. It's odd to me.

We never made it to Devon this weekend as planned. Instead we ran around doing things that needed doing. We spent a huge amount of money at the Chinese supermarket in Bristol, and we did more conventional shopping in a British Tesco. We also made bread, and I found time to watch all 5 episodes of Criminal Justice on the BBC. I've been half following it as it was shown during the week, but I lost it around Wednesday, and then caught up Saturday and yesterday. I thought it was pretty good, but I want to know how realistic it is.

If a person gets arrested on suspicion of some serious crime like murder, does that person's solicitor really tell them to shut up in case they say something that is difficult to defend? If you didn't see the drama, that will mean nothing to you. The central character is arrested on suspicion of murder. It looks for all the world like he did it. His solicitor shows up, and the first thing he says is shut up, "You have to learn to keep your mouth shut until you've learnt enough not to." The arrested guy tells his solicitor that he wants to tell the truth, and his solicitor says, "Don't burden me with the truth." It seems like his solicitor is not the slightest bit interested in what really happened, only in what he can say in court.

As the drama progresses the guy meets his barristers and they tell him to keep quiet too. The barristers strike a deal with the prosecution that will allow the guy to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder. There will be no trial and he'll be out of prison in 2-3 years. But it all goes wrong because the guy isn't prepared to plead guilty to manslaughter. He didn't kill the victim, so he pleads not guilty at the hearing. That forces a murder trial. I won't go any further in case I ruin it for someone. It's pretty good though.

Just one more quote that stayed with me; the arrested guy is young, and his mother is distraught that he's been arrested. His solicitor meets with his mother, and the mother asks him, "Do you think he did it?" The solicitor says something like, "I'm sure 99% of the people I defend are 100% guilty. I can't say that about your son." The mother tells him that isn't a proper answer, and he tells her, "yes it is, that absolutely is a proper answer. All I need is reasonable doubt." And he's right because the burden of proof is on the prosecution. They have to prove he did it, and if there is doubt, that means they can't prove anything. The lawyer believes the justice system works, just not the way most people understand it.

Lost Time

Due to a combination of generally not having enough time, leaving my flash disk at home, and leaving my laptop at work, I haven't written anything here since, oh I don't know when. So below is what happened on 3-4 July. I have stuff to tell you about the weekend, but it's still in my head.

3 July

There is a crisis in our house. We've run out of rice. In normal houses this wouldn't be a big issue, but in an East-West fusion family, it presents a problem. I made spaghetti bolognese last night, No need for rice there. I don't know what is going to happen tonight. It's really very worrying. Incidentally, I gave myself first degree burns while stirring up the sauce last night.

I read something yesterday about gang culture being a substitute for family culture. It was the opinion of a senior policeman and it was written in response to the horrifying number of knife crimes that have recently been reported. It made sense to me, and I dont very often say that about anything said by a policeman. The theory is that more children come from broken or dysfunctional families now than ever before, and that these children join gangs to satisfy their natural tribal instinct. At least, that's what I read into it.

4 July

Google has been ordered by the American courts to hand over details of every video ever watched on YouTube. Details would include personal information about the person who watched each video. Quite frightening isn't it. The ruling was made during an ongoing battle between Google and Viacom. I'm continually amazed by the way the entertainment industry is so determined to alienate its own customer base. I shan't be buying anything from Viacom in the near future.

On a similar theme, it has recently been announced that Virgin Media in UK has made a deal with the BPI (British Phonographic Industry). The BPI has been monitoring file sharing sites and identified IP addresses of people illegally downloading files. They then made a deal with Virgin to identify Virgin users. Virgin users can expect to receive a letter informing them that their service provider knows what they are doing.

I don't think we have the whole story here. Firstly, Virgin Media is a very unpleasant company and in my experience, they will do pretty much anything for a few £s. My guess is therefore that the BPI gave them a cash incentive to send these letters out to users. Secondly, Virgin have said that they will not take action against identified users, despite the fact that the letter apparently says they might. This makes me think that they told the BPI one thing, and the public another. Thirdly, it's unclear whether Virgin have given the BPI personal information about these users. I rather doubt it, but if they have, the BPI could then take users to court without Virgin being involved.

The BPI wants all British Service providers to sign up to the same agreement as Virgin. So far only Virgin has done so. What do Virgin users think? Well, I'm a Virgin User and I'll be looking around for another provider. Am I an illegal file sharer? Well I don't share anything, but I did download the entire 4th Season of Lost because Virgin, who also supply my tv, had a row with Sky and no longer carry the show. It was the only way I could think of getting it. I haven't had the letter yet, but there was a letter from Virgin yesterday which I thought could be the one. It turned out to be an advert for a cell phone.

My conclusion, well in my experience Virgin have trouble sending the right bill to customers, so the chances of them reliably identifying customers at a given time with an IP address is slim. So far, only 800 letters have been sent, and they have a customer base of some 4 million. That would equate to around 0.02% of customers. The BPI estimates about 20% of people are using file sharing sites. So only 1 in 1000 appear to have been identified if those figures turn out to be right. What's more. I'd say the figures are probably wrong, since each one of those customers is likely to be a family with more than one user, at least one of which is likely to be using file sharing services. Am I bovvered? Nope.

Happy Independence Day to all you Yankee types. We should have a mid summer festival over here in the UK. I'm going to invent one and write to the PM about it.

An End, a Middle, and an Answer

1 July

Someone decided to end it all beneath a train this morning. It was either the train I wanted to catch, or the one in front of it. One was cancelled and the other was delayed by over an hour. I got on a later train which was also delayed. I suppose that someone so desperately depressed is unlikely to be greatly concerned by the disruption their actions are likely to cause, but watching someone bounce off a train windscreen has got to affect onlookers, and particularly the driver in some fairly drastic ways. And it does cause a certain amount of general chaos. It's not a method I would choose.

I met a colleague on the train. When I told her why there was a delay she gestured out of the window and remarked that it was a day too beautiful on which to kill oneself. Indeed, the sun was shining and I had to wonder just what made the guy do it.

This morning the future of Europe appears a little less certain than it did yesterday. France is poised to take the rotating presidency. There were big plans to use the 6-month period to move the Lisbon Treaty forward, but that has all changed now that the Irish have trashed it. The Irish are apparently not the only sceptics. There are legal challenges to the treaty in Britain, the Czech Republic, and Germany. The Germans have said they won't sign until the challenge has been through their highest court, and the Polish President has also said he's not signing, despite the ratification process having gone through parliament, because it would be 'pointless' now that the Irish have voted no. I can't see how the Lisbon treaty can ever be ratified.

2 July

Hundreds of lorry drivers are bringing London to a standstill today in protest at the huge price of fuel. I bet Gordon is wondering why he took the job on now.

David Cameron has accused Gordon of doing deals to secure support in the 42-day detention plan vote. A leaked letter between Geoff Hoon and Keith Vaz has been published in the Telegraph. It's apparently been hand written by Geoff Hoon and implies that Vaz would be rewarded for reversing his decision to vote against the government. I don't think anyone believes that those ministers who changed their minds at the last minute and voted with the government did so out of sudden realisation that the PM was right all along. They must have been offered something. The Telegraph makes a very strong suggestion that Vaz was offered a peerage. If that was the case, Vaz must now be cursing the day he shook Gordon's hand and accepted the bribe, because he sure as hell won't get his gong now.

And finally, Mr Philosophy Punk asks me how I can be so cheerful with a heavy child on my back. And the answer Mr Punk, is very simple. He's my son, and as such, every second spent with him is better than any second spent without him. This you can't possibly hope to understand until such time as you have a child of your own. Until that time. You'll just have to take my word for it.